We last heard about the live-action adaptation of the GUNNM manga with Alita: Battle Angel earlier this year with a short-list of actress for the leading role. That list included Zendaya, who got attention recently for her casting in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Rosa Salazar who was seen in the second Maze Runner film, and Maika Monroe, who has roles in both It Follows and Independence Day: Resurgence out this year.
According to Collider and other sources, Rosa Salazar has won the leading role for the film that’s based on the manga by Yukito Kishiro. Casting generally doesn’t have an extensive lead-time on it so there’s potential for it to enter into production later this year. But with a Cameron backed project, you can never be too sure.
“Robert and I have been looking for a film to do together for years, so I was pumped when he said he wanted to do Battle Angel,” stated Cameron last October. “He’s very collaborative and we’re already like two kids building a go-kart, just having fun riffing creatively and technically. This project is near and dear to me, and there’s nobody I trust more than Robert, with his technical virtuosity and rebel style, to take over the directing reins. We’re looking forward to learning a lot from each other while we make a kick-ass epic.”
Added Rodriguez at the time: “Battle Angel is an incredibly rich and vibrant epic in the tradition of Jim Cameron’s spectacular, character-driven films. Getting to work from Jim’s terrific and visionary script while learning the cutting edge techniques he’s pioneered is a master class in filmmaking. It’s an honor to explore the world of Alita along with Jim and Jon, whose films have impacted me for decades.”
This is still likely to keep the two anime OVAs out of distributors hands for quite some time to come unfortunately.
Plot concept: In the story, the cyborg “mechanical angel” Gally (Alita in English translation) goes to Mars to discover her roots and seek the truth about herself.
